JEREMIAH 18A
Jeremiah instructed to go to potter’s house verse 1- 4
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD – saying
Arise – and go down to the potter’s house
and there I will cause thee to hear MY words
THEN I went down to the potter’s house – and – BEHOLD
he wrought a work on the wheels
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred
in the hand of the potter SO he made it again another vessel
as seemed good to the potter to make it
Jeremiah receives an illustrated message from the LORD verse 5- 10
Then the word of the LORD came to me – saying
O house of Israel- cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD
BEHOLD – as the clay is in the potter’s hand
so are ye in MINE hand – O house of Israel
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation
and concerning a kingdom – to pluck up – to pull down
and to destroy it
If that nation – against whom I have pronounced – turn from their evil
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them
and at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation
and concerning a kingdom to build – to plant it
If it do evil in MY sight – that it obey not MY voice
THEN I will repent of the good
wherewith I said I would benefit them
Jeremiah told to go warn the people of Jerusalem verse 11
NOW THEREFORE go to – speak to the men of Judah
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying – thus says the LORD
BEHOLD I frame evil against you – and devise a device against you
RETURN you now every one from his evil way
and make your ways and doings good
People of Jerusalem state their reaction to message verse 12
AND they said – There is no hope
BUT we will walk after our own devices
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart
LORD pronounces judgment on Jerusalem verse 13- 17
THEREFORE thus says the LORD
Ask you now among the heathen – who hath heard such things
the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the
rock of the field?
OR shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place
be forsaken?
BECAUSE MY people hath forgotten ME
they have burned incense to vanity
and they have caused them to stumble in their ways
from the ancients paths – to walk in paths
in a way not cast up
To make their land desolate – and a perpetual hissing
every one that passes thereby shall be astonished
and wag his head
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy
I will show them the back – and not the face
in the day of their calamity
People of Jerusalem plot against Jeremiah verse 18
Then said they
Come – and let us devise devices against Jeremiah
for the law shall not perish from the priest
nor counsel from the wise
nor the word from the prophet
Come – and let us smite him with the tongue
and let us not give heed to any of his words
Jeremiah’s prayer to the LORD verse 19- 23
Give heed to me – O LORD
hearken to the voice of them that contend with me
Shall evil be recompensed for good?
for they have dug a pit for my soul
Remember that I stood before YOU to speak good for them
and to turn away YOUR wrath from them
THEREFORE deliver up their children to the famine
and pour out their blood by the force of the sword
and let their wives be bereaved of their children
and be widows
and let their men be put to death
let their young men be slain by the sword in battle
Let a cry be heard from their houses
when YOU shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them
for they have dug a pit to take me
and hid snares for my feet
Yet – LORD – YOU know all their counsel against me to slay me
forgive not their inquity neither blot out their sin from YOUR sight
BUT let them be overthrown before YOU
Deal thus with them in the time of YOUR anger
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I willrepentof the evil that I thought to do unto them. (5162 "repent" [nacham] means relent, not bring the disaster, revoke, forgo, to sigh, breathe strongly, to pity, comfort oneself, ease oneself, or to be sorry.)
DEVOTION: This is a hard verse to understand by some. God is long-suffering. God gives every chance to a group to turn from their evil, even HIS own people, Israel. HE told Israel that if they worshiped other gods, HE would send judgment. HE was sending HIS prophet, Jeremiah, with a final warning. God always gives a choice to HIS people: repent or judgment.
If a group of people repent of their sin, than no judgment. When a group of people doesn’t repent of their sin, then judgment follows in the LORD’S time.
HE has done this with heathen nations as well as HIS own people over the course of history. Does this mean that God is not in control? NO!!! There is a point of no return with those who continue to sin without turning toward HIM again.
Our turning changes our relationship with the LORD. We have daily choices after we chose to follow the LORD. We can choose to live according to HIS standards or chose to not live according to HIS standards. If we chose to live by HIS standards, HE can bless us. Does this mean no more trials? NO!!! Each day brings its own challenges. Even when we are obedient HE prunes us so that we can produce more fruit for HIM.
However, when we are disobedient, HE will chasten us to call us back to obedient service. HE wants HIS people obedient to HIM. Are we being obedient today?
We need to be praying for a revival in our world. Revival can still happen, if God’s people obey HIM. Pray! Pray! Pray! Prayer changes our relationship with the LORD. HE bases HIS relationship with us by our behavior. If our behavior changes HE will forgive. If our behavior doesn’t change HE will judge.
CHALLENGE: We have not reached the point of no return in our lives or in our nation. There is still time for HIS blessings to come into our lives and nations. Encourage yourselves in the fact that God is long-suffering.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. (2976 “no hope” [ya’ash] means to be despaired, desperate, to be in vain, void of hope, one who despairs, give up hope, or one who is desperate.
DEVOTION: There are many people who think that they are in a desperate situation at present. They think they have no place to turn. They just have to resign themselves to the fact that they just have to give up.
Have you ever thought that your situation is hopeless? I have been in a situation that I thought was hopeless but the LORD used the situation to encourage me in HIS provision and strength.
Here we find the children of Judah who have all the promises of Scripture at their disposal and yet they think that they can’t change even with the LORD’S help. They think that the only thing they can do is give up.
So they tell Jeremiah not to waste his breath on them. They don’t think they can change and in fact they don’t even want to change. They are enjoying sin. They are enjoying being out of fellowship with the LORD. They really don’t think that God is going to judge them for their sins.
Why are they thinking those thoughts? It is because there are false prophets and priests and political leaders that are instructing them in opposition of the message of Jeremiah.
They are giving the people false assurance that the LORD would never destroy Jerusalem. They were informing them that the message of Jeremiah was not coming from God.
They liked what these false teachers and politicians were telling them. There only thought was to kill Jeremiah because they didn’t like his message. It was so negative.
Many people in the church today want to hear the same message. They want to hear that their sins are never going to be judged and that they can live as they please as long as they don’t do anything really wrong.
They think that they are just as good as any other believer and therefore God will be happy with them the way they are. They take the song “Just as I am” to mean that God doesn’t really want to change them. HE accepts them with all their faults and they don’t really have to mature in the faith. It is wrong thinking.
The children of Judah were thinking wrong. They were not in a hopeless situation. They could and should change to serve the LORD faithfully. Their choice would result in judgment for the nation and their families. It is the same with us here in America and in any other nation that doesn’t want to honor the LORD.
Killing the messenger or burning the Bible is not going to cause the judgment to go away. In fact, it might hasten its coming. Remember there are consequences to our lack of growth in the LORD.
Realize that with the LORD there is always the promise of assurance of comfort in difficult circumstances. Repentance is needed for the LORD to restore our relationship with HIM.
CHALLENGE: Our message should be one of confidence in the help of the LORD in any situation. HE will give us the strength to face any trial with honor to HIS name.)
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
Devotion: God’s people have often been attacked because well intentioned individuals believe teachers and scholars instead of God’s word. The Pharisees and Sadducees communicated and instructed the people of Israel against the teaching of Jesus Christ. They desired for the laws and regulations that past teachers had instituted to be equal or above the Old Testament commands. The rituals and ordnances were more important than the word of God. Jeremiah received the same treatment and was rejected and attacked by his countrymen. In reality they were rejecting God’s message and then attacked God’s messenger. They conceived a conspiracy to silence Jeremiah or at least nullify his words.
Application:Today the newsmen, scholars, respected teachers are also seeking to silence the simple and clear teachings of the Bible. Individuals accuse bible believing people and pastors of not being sensitive to cultural issues or individuals rights. They bring accusations of misrepresentation of the word of God. Some individuals challenge the use of Scripture from being placed on open boards or public display. All this is done like it was to Jeremiah so that the truth of God’s word would not be spoken or heard. The devising of plans continues and the people of God cannot become discouraged. Remember, “…do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11b, 12) (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
- Chastity (Purity in living)
- Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
- Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
- Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
- Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
- Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
- Frugality (wise use of resources)
- Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
- Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
- Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
- Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
- Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
- Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Jeremiah prays for help from the LORD verse 19- 23
- Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
- Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Word of the LORD verse 1, 5
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 5, 6, 11, 13,
19, 23
Word of the LORD verse 1, 5
Relent verse 8
Judgment of the LORD verse 11- 17,
Wrath of God verse 20, 23
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Nation verse 7- 9
Kingdom verse 7, 9
Heathen verse 13
Lebanon verse 14
Enemy verse 17
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Marred verse 4
Evil verse 8, 10, 11, 20
Obey not LORD’S voice verse 10
No hope verse 12
Walk in own devises verse 12
Imagination of evil heart verse 12
Horrible thing verse 13
Forgotten LORD verse 15
Worshiped false gods verse 15
Stumble from ancient paths verse 15
Device devices against God’s servant verse 18
Speak against LORD’S servant verse 18, 23
Not listen to LORD’S servant verse 18
Content with LORD’S servant verse 19
Iniquity verse 23
Sin verse 23
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Hear the Word of the LORD verse 2
Good verse 4, 11, 20
Turn from evil verse 8
Repent verse 8
Obey verse 10
Benefits verse 10
Return verse 11
Doing good verse 11, 20 Hope verse 12
Walk in ancient paths verse 15
Have the face of God verse 17 Wise verse 18
Listen to LORD’S servant verse 18 Forgiveness verse 23
Sin is blotted out verse 23
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Jeremiah verse 1, 18
House of Israel verse 6
Men of Judah verse 11
Inhabitants of Jerusalem verse 11
Virgin of Israel verse 13
LORD’S people verse 15
Priest verse 18
Prophet verse 18
Jeremiah’s call for judgment verse 19- 23
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
QUOTES
18:18–23. Again the people responded by making plans against Jeremiah. They refused to accept his declaration of doom because it conflicted with their belief in the permanence of the then-present order. Their solution was to attack him with their tongues in an effort to slander and malign his message and also to pay no attention to his words, hoping to silence him by ignoring him. Evidently their plans were more sinister because Jeremiah told the Lord that they were plotting to take his life (they have dug a pit, vv. 20–21; cf. 11:18–21).
Jeremiah reacted to their threats by calling on God to listen to their accusations, to remember his (Jeremiah’s) faithfulness, and to judge the plotters for their sin. Jeremiah had earlier asked God to turn His wrath away (18:20; cf. 7:16; 8:20–22), but now he called on God to deal with them in His time of … anger (18:23). They had rejected both God and His messenger; Jeremiah could do no more for them. They would experience famine and the sword (v. 21). (Dyer, C. H. (1985). Jeremiah. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1153). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
The agony of the prophet (vv. 19–23). This is the fifth of Jeremiah’s private “laments” to the Lord concerning his situation and his ministry (see Jer. 11:18–23; 12:1–5; 15:10–18; 17:14–18; 20:7–18). His words seem terribly harsh to us and unlike the spirit of Jesus, but keep in mind that Jeremiah was a divinely appointed prophet who represented God to the nation. Those who opposed him were opposing God, and Jeremiah asked God to deal with them (Deut. 32:35; see Rom. 12:17–19).
Like Elijah and all the other prophets, Jeremiah was “a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17, “with a nature like ours,” NKJV), and he felt deep pain because the leaders rejected the truth. I suppose if you and I were attacked by hateful enemies who lied about us, set traps for us, and dug pits for us, we’d get upset and ask God to deal with them. At least Jeremiah expressed himself honestly to God and left the matter with Him. He needed to remember God’s promises when He called him (Jer. 1:7–10, 17–19) and rest in the assurance that the Lord would see him through.
There is a righteous anger against sin that is acceptable to God. “Be angry, and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26, NKJV, quoted from Ps. 4:4). “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Ps. 97:10, NKJV; see Rom. 12:9) Jesus was angry at the hardening of the hearts of His critics (Mark 3:5), and Paul was angry because of professed believers who were leading others astray. “Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?” (2 Cor. 11:29, NIV) Unrighteous anger takes matters into its own hands and seeks to destroy the offender, while righteous anger turns the matter over to God and seeks to help the offended. Anguish is anger plus love, and it isn’t easy to maintain a holy balance. If Jeremiah seems too angry to us, perhaps some of us today aren’t angry enough at the evil in this world. Thanks to the media, we’re exposed to so much violence and sin that we tend to accept it as a normal part of life and want to do nothing about it. Crusading has given way to compromising, and it isn’t “politically correct” to be dogmatic or critical of ideas that are definitely unbiblical. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Decisive (pp. 86–87). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
Therefore Jeremiah is to go again to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem with the warning that the Lord had devised evil against them; but he is also to exhort them to return from their iniquitous course, and to make their ways and their doings good (ver. 11). On their part, however, there was no sign of penitence—not to speak of repentance. With that awful boldness that so often characterizes men away from God, they replied, “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart” (ver. 12). They had committed themselves to a course of rebellion and treachery, and they desired nothing better than their own godless way. Who can tell the depths to which even one who has known much of divine care and guidance can sink when once a good conscience has been put away?
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At the time they were uttered the prophet’s hearers refused to credit them; and playing on the words of Jehovah, they said, “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah.” They would make him the responsible party, and they sought to wreak their vengeance on the servant, in place of bowing to the words of the Master. With vainglorious self-confidence, they cried, “The law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet!” They referred, of course, to their own false priests, teachers, and prophets, whom God had not sent nor anointed. “Come, and let us smite him with the tongue,” said they, “and let us not give heed to any of his words” (ver. 18). In place of contending with them, Jeremiah makes his supplication to the One who had sent him; for “the servant of the Lord must not strive.” At the very moment when they in their bitter hatred and hostility had “digged a pit” for his soul, he prays, “Remember that I stood before Thee to speak good for them, and to turn away Thy wrath from them” (ver. 20). But because they despised their own mercies, and persisted in their wilful course, he makes intercession, as Elijah had done, against them, and calls for the fulfilment of his prophecy (vers. 21, 23). (Ironside, H. A. (1906). Notes on the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah (pp. 93–94). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)
NO REGRETS
poem by Anne R. C. Neale
Some days in my life are happier than others,
But I have no regrets because I am alive,
I have been strengthened by challenges and I have lived through crisis
And I am busy now as in a bee hive.
I have no regrets, I live in the present,
I have made some past errors, too I know
But I am encouraged by my success in some things
And I am blessed with my family and friend too, that is so,
Some days are very happy in my life
Some days aren't but I accept what comes my way,
I keep God focused always in my life
And to God, My Savior, I always pray.
Neither does the world hate us because we are good. Let us be quite clear about that. The world does not hate good people; the world only hates Christian people. That is the subtle, vital distinction. If you are just a good person, the world, far from hating you, will admire you; it will cheer you. And what is true of the individual is true of the whole Church. The world, we are told, hates Christians, not because they are hateful, not because they are good, not because they do good, but specifically because they are Christians, because they are of God, because they have Christ within them. (By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, From Children of God, pp. 101-102.